This railway is the result of consolidations of several smaller railways that have gone broke and or been taken over. One of the first in this region is the Franklin Canal Company. Chartered in 1844 the Franklin Canal Company built the original line from Erie, Pennsylvania to the Pennsylvania/Ohio state border.
The Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula Railroad, incorporated in 1848, laid the track from Cleveland, Ohio to the Ohio/Pennsylvania state border, meeting up with the Franklin Canal Company line. The full line from Cleveland to Erie was first opened for passengers November 20, 1852. In 1854 the Cleveland, Painesville and Ashtabula bought out the Franklin Canal Company.
The Buffalo and State Line Railroad, incorporated in 1849, built the line from Dunkirk, New York to the New York/Pennsylvania state line. It opened January 1, 1852 and the full line to Buffalo, New York opened February 22, 1852
The final short segment, built by the Erie and North East Railroad from the New York state line to Erie also opened in January of 1852. This line was different, however. It was built with the wide gauge, 6 foot tracks favored by the the New York and Erie Railway. The majority of the line from Buffalo to Cleveland was 4 foot 10 inch track.
November 16, 1853, the Buffalo and State Line Railroad and the Erie and North East Railroad made an agreement. They would re-lay the track at the standard gauge and the Buffalo and State Line would operate the line. Passengers and freight would no longer need to change trains at Erie, Pennsylvania. This situation had provided a nice profit to Erie, particularly to freight handlers and food vendors catering to the delayed passengers. They would be cut off.
December 7, 1853, the Erie Gauge War began.
After swearing in 150 "special police constables", Mayor Alfred King led the police to the railroad bridge crossing State and French streets and, where engineers had marked the edges of the streets on the bridges, had sections of the bridges cut out.
That evening, 7 miles away in the town of Harborcreek, its citizens decided to pass its own ordinances and proceeded to tear up tracks along the highway. Three days later, tracks of the new gauge were completed up to the city limits and that night the people of Harbor Creek tore out the tracks again, knocked down a bridge, and even ploughed up a level crossing.
An injunction was obtained by the railroad from the United States Circuit Court in Pittsburgh and a United States Marshall was dispatched to Harborcreek. Upon arriving in Harborcreek, the marshal served it to one of the officials of Harborcreek and pointed out the seal of the United States. The official promptly threw it on the ground and stomped it with his heel and declaring the heelmark "the seal of Harborcreek."
The most serious incident occurred on December 27, 1853, when a train of railroad officials and workers was stopped outside of Harborcreek by a crowd of people ripping up the tracks. An official shot at one of the men in the crowd and knocked him unconscious. The crowd, who believed the man to be dead, chased the official back on to his train. After two or three members of the crowd forced their way on to the train, the train reversed and "headed at full speed for the state line". Once across the border, the train stopped, and stowaways from Harborcreek were sent back over the border into Pennsylvania.
On December 26, 1853, Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, had to travel through Erie on his way to Chicago and had to travel from Harborcreek to Erie in an open sleigh "through a cutting storm of wind, snow, and sleet". Greeley had hoped to be able to give a lecture in Adrian, Michigan, that same day "but that could not now be, for the Kingdom of Erie forbade it".
"Let Erie be avoided by all travelers until grass shall grow in her streets, and till her pie-men in despair shall move away to some other city."
Horace Greeley, New York Tribune
Finally, on February 1, 1854, the railroad ran a train through Erie without change. But civil disturbances continued as late as 1856, and the matter had caused such hard feelings that people avoided discussing it for years afterwards in order to avoid starting arguments.